Semaphore

“Rawness” is a relative quality. This is known. So when I say the latest demo from the Italian/Swiss trio known as Deathvoid is “raw black metal”, I am left deeply unsatisfied with the descriptor. ‘Semaphore’ not only operates on the borders between black metal and noise, it is a noise album rendered via the techniques of traditional black metal.

One can hear vocals, a drumbeat, maybe the shadow of a repeated chord sequence…something one might call a “riff”. But these are all peripheral to Deathviod’s artistic goal, which is to bury all these traditional elements beneath a static so pervasive, so domineering, that it’s as if we are truly witnessing black metal’s proud melodic core melt away for the sake of pure abrasion.

At times it feels like listening to poor quality versions of tracks that have not yet been given the studio treatment…y’know, like a demo. Emperor’s ‘Wrath of the Tyrant’ demo comes to mind, early Hellhammer, elements of mid-period Havohej. But there is a degree of intentionality behind what Deathvoid are doing, the noise has gone beyond an atmospheric adornment or an accident of recording to become the central thesis of this project.

The music swirls around these very traditionally grim black metal riffs, rendered on a tinny as fuck guitar tone (no other way to put that). These are driven along by muffled but confident drumbeats, supressed by their bass heavy position in the “mix”. They jump from slow plodding tempos to simple punk rhythms, occasionally picking themselves up into a shuffling blast-beat of sorts.

But all these musical artefacts present on ‘Semaphore’ are remarkably hard to come by after a casual listen. And this is where the title of this demo becomes highly appropriate. Much like deciphering obscure flag signals through a thick fog, the ear is drawn away from the guitar and drums to focus on the static of shifting intensity; an amoral, indifferent presence inserted into the sound and mediating our relationship to the music through the lens of pure noise. Our connection to the very possibility of meaning is being challenged, a barrier has been placed between us and the common language of music. The vocals, in sticking with traditional black metal screeches, seem to revel in this evisceration, with the vocal tone bleeding into the all-encompassing static and bolstering its presence.

The demo closes with ‘Hierarchies Dissolve’, which of all the tracks on here has the most pronounced melodic progression, with a tone that could be a keyboard or it could be a bass guitar, it’s honestly hard to tell. A low hum gradually climbs in pitch until we have nothing to navigate by save a haunting siren and shuffling drums barely holding it together. A fitting way to end this collection of tracks that guard the borders between metal and noise, as if daring any who wander by to take the plunge, and relinquish their loosening grip on musical comfort blankets altogether.

Originally published at Hate Meditations